Where There Is Light
by TheJabuticaba
Summary: There will always be shadow. More specifically, Lara's Shadow. OR "What Ever Happened To Doppy?" (Tomb Raider Underworld) COMPLETE.
1. Where There Is Light

_"Never fear shadows. They simply mean there's a light shining somewhere nearby." – Ruth E. Renkel_

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><p><strong>Where There Is Light<strong>

Doppelgangers were originally creatures of mythology, one that often heralded death, especially if viewed by the original. Atlantean doppelgangers weren't quite the same.

Lara's Doppelganger, for one, didn't quite bring death and destruction.

(Okay, it _did_.)

But that was beside the point.

The point was, Atlantean doppelgangers didn't have free will. They were nothing more than mindless slaves, acting under the orders of true Atlanteans, and were very expendable indeed. They were expected to obey every order, even if the odds of dying were greater than the ones of surviving. In short, they were mere puppets. Pawns in a twisted real-life chessboard.

Lara's Doppelganger was no exception to the rules of existence for doppelgangers.

She had no free will. Every bullet that she fired did not fly from her handguns willingly. Every punch that she threw, every kick, every move, every breath, even, all eventually led back to the creator of this particular Doppelganger.

Natla, ex-queen of the Atlanteans, the insane Atlantean that had tried to bring about the Seventh Age, and was probably still capable of wreaking havoc upon the unsuspecting mortals of earth.

Of course, said ex-queen was also currently drowning in a pool of Eitir, so perhaps the last part was a moot point.

"Okh Eshivar!" The Atlantean all but shrieked.

Aaaaand, the Doppelganger merely looked down at the drowning Queen and smirked wickedly, golden eyes glinting in the light of the Eitir.

Natla was an immortal. It could either be seen as a blessing or as a curse. It allowed the Atlantean to see the rise and fall of many civilisations, and it prevented her from the need of buying wrinkle cream.

However, in this case, it was definitely a curse.

By the end, the Doppelganger guessed that it took a good ten minutes for the Eitir to completely cover the nasty Atlantean, and a good twenty minutes later, the Doppelganger was pretty sure that Natla was probably still bubbling away somewhere, and very much alive.

However, along with the rising pool of Eitir also came another annoyance – the reappearance of the Thralls.

The Doppelganger had spent half a second pondering over the moral implications of using the 'magic words' on the Thralls, before ruling that option out. It was a bit odd to be using the very two words that had controlled her for her entire life. The Doppelganger got up from the boulder, stretched and cracked her knuckles before throwing herself at the nearest Thrall, ready to kick the zombie's butt to Avalon and back.

#TR:U#

The chamber was now littered with the dismembered body parts of the Thralls, and the Doppelganger sat herself back on top of the boulder, cupping her chin in thought.

When Lara had asked her what she would do if she had free will, the Doppelganger had answered with a simple "What would _you_ do?"

Granted, it wasn't the most articulate thing the Doppelganger had ever said, but it was effective, seeing as she now had her free will.

It was a foreign feeling, almost alien, in the way that the Doppelganger now could _choose_ what she wanted to do, instead of obeying orders all the time. It was _refreshing_.

But there was one slight problem that the Doppelganger hadn't thought of.

What the flippin' heck was she supposed to do now?

Her bucket list wasn't exactly the longest one in the world. Currently, it had two items, and both had been crossed off (Get free will/Make Natla suffer) within an alarmingly short time. Put shortly, she had no purpose in life.

The Doppelganger allowed herself to sigh a very human sigh, and she dropped her hands against the top of the boulder, drumming her fingers as she tried to plot out her next course of action.

She could always just hang around in Avalon, and throw rocks at the occasional Thrall, and spend the rest of her remarkably long lifespan fighting Eitir-created zombies.

The Doppelganger looked at the doorway, thought of her original – Lara Classic – and wondered if she would be pushing her luck if she decided to make herself welcome at the half-destroyed Croft Manor.

Eventually, her decision was made when the tell-tale growls echoed down the gloomy halls. The Doppelganger leapt off the boulder, landed lightly on her feet and took off in a Shadow-enhanced run.

Maybe it would take less than four days this time.

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><p><span><em><strong>Author's Notes: Okay, so I saw the Doppelganger from Lara's Shadow, and utterly fell in love with the awesomeness of the character, and I couldn't just leave the Doppelganger all alone in Avalon. So, this story was created. Yes, I know it's short.<strong>_


	2. The Waterlogged Phoenix

_**Author's Notes: The Doppelganger makes it back to Croft Manor. Or rather, where Croft Manor used to be.**_

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><p><strong>The Waterlogged Phoenix<strong>

_"…Her ashes new-create another heir As great in admiration as herself." – William Shakespeare_

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><p>Thunder rumbled, and one Lara Croft rolled over in her bed, before proceeding to fall off the mattress completely. Amidst the thunder, a squeak of surprise and a muffled thump was added to the noises of the night.<p>

And then came a string of curse words that should never have passed a lady's lips.

Lara sat up groggily, still cursing the hardness of the caravan floor as opposed to the carpet of her old bedroom, which was now a pile of ashes becoming wetter and wetter in the thunderstorm outside. At least, that was assuming it hadn't been cleared away by the builders already.

Within hours of the old Croft Manor's untimely demise, Winston, good old reliable Winston, had called in a proficient team of builders who were then given the instructions to recreate Croft Manor and restore the ashes to its former glory.

The old man had muttered something about phoenixes and ashes and whatnot. Lara hadn't paid attention at the time, considering that she had Avalon and Alister's death to worry about at that point. And the fact that her house had been reduced to a pile of ashes by her own ginger twin.

And now, ten days after Croft Manor went up in flames, the foundations of the new manor had been laid and was ready for rebuilding, hence why the former residents of the old Manor – Zip, Winston, Lara and Zip's trusty laptop – were currently living in luxury caravans on the relatively undamaged grounds of the Manor.

Sadly, previously mentioned luxury caravans did not have any form of carpeting.

Biting back another torrent of swearwords, Lara got to her feet and rubbed her elbow ruefully as she looked at the pouring rain outside. There was little chance of her going back to sleep tonight, what with the storm raging outside. Sighing, the tomb raider shuffled into the small kitchenette, complete with a round table, and plugged in the electric kettle to make the miracle cure for stormy nights: hot chocolate.

As she waited for the kettle to boil, Lara flopped gracelessly down at the table, rested her arms on the tabletop and dropped her head atop her arms. She closed her eyes and contented herself with listening to the noises surrounding her.

The faint rumble of thunder, the pattering of rain, the howling of wind, the insistent knocking at the caravan door, the kettle boiling-

Lara's eyes shot open, and she sat up with a jerk, head turning towards the caravan door. For a moment, she listened for the knocking sound again, and when she heard nothing but the usual thunderstorm sounds, she brushed off the knocking as her imagination.

As Lara made herself a cup of hot chocolate, she couldn't help but wonder what happened to her Doppelganger. The last time she had seen the Atlantean creation, the Doppelganger had run off to "make Natla suffer", and Lara hadn't seen her copy since.

Ruefully, Lara wondered if Natla had killed the Doppelganger, and a small stab of guilt shot through the tomb raider.

_But hey,_ her mind argued, _for all you know, the Doppelganger's probably off travelling the world by now. She probably kicked Natla's butt in two seconds._

However, as Lara sipped carefully at her hot drink, the knocking started again, this time louder than before. The tomb raider made the mistake of drawing her breath sharply, and ended up choking on the hot chocolate.

Eyes streaming, throat burning and mentally vowing to make whoever it was knocking on the caravan door pay and pay dearly, Lara wiped the last few tears from her eyes, and stumbled to the door, managing an impressive scowl in spite of her watering eyes. She wrenched the door open, with enough force to take it off its hinges, and snarled "What do you want?"

…right in her own face, with a few noticeable exceptions.

This face, for one, was dripping wet, and even as Lara stared, a rivulet of water ran down the contours of the face. Red hair was flattened against the head, completely saturated with water.

The Doppelganger curved an eyebrow up delicately, and placed her hands on her hips, golden eyes shining with suppressed mirth as she took in Lara's dishevelled state.

"Oh." Lara muttered, feeling sheepish as she had snapped at the Doppelganger. "You're back."

A small smile curved the Doppelganger's lips. "Indeed."

The two spent another ten seconds staring at each other. Then,

"For what it's worth, I made Natla suffer." The Doppelganger considered her words. "I'm pretty sure she's _still_ suffering."

"Oh." It was all Lara seemed capable of saying.

It meant that Natla, the immortal, was probably going to be in quite a lot of pain for a long time, and a small grin appeared on Lara's features. _Good. That bitch had it coming anyway._

Throughout the whole time Lara had stood there thinking, the Doppelganger had simply stood in the rain and was not becoming wetter, but that was only because she was already soaked and quite incapable of absorbing any more water.

"Good job, I suppose." Lara said finally to her Doppelganger.

The Doppelganger inclined her head in a small nod.

The two stood there, one under shelter and the other being pummelled by the rain, and finally, the human version of Lara remembered her manners.

"Uh…I don't suppose you want any hot chocolate?"


	3. A New Day

**A New Day**

"However long the night, dawn will break." – African Proverb

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><p>Zip, however, wished that he could have had a few more hours of sleep.<p>

The techy had spent most of the previous night setting up his extensive network of electronics within his room of the large caravan. His efforts had been hampered repeatedly by the thunderstorm, until he had finally given up at 4 AM in the morning and crashed into bed with all intents of sleeping in, and would have done so gladly, if it weren't for the sunlight streaming in through his window.

Oh, there was nothing wrong with the sunlight. The only problem was that it was annoyingly bright, and woke him from his fitful slumber of only two hours.

Letting out a low, Thrall-like groan, the technician dragged himself out of bed and stood up on unsteady feet, while rubbing his eyes the whole time. Somehow, through his half-asleep state, Zip managed to dodge the various parts of electronics littering his room's floor, and one hand reached out lazily to snag the doorknob.

Still rubbing one eye, Zip yawned as he stumbled into the kitchenette. Smothering another yawn behind his hand, Zip brushed past the redhead sitting at the table and opened up one of the cupboards. As he rummaged inside the cupboard for the ghastly sugary cereal that he had an unusual liking for, he managed a greeting to the person at the table.

"Morning, Lara."

His hand closed around empty air at where the cereal box was supposed to be. Zip frowned, his sleep-befuddled mind finally catching up with his eyes. He realised two important things. Firstly, the cereal was gone. Secondly, Lara didn't have red hair. Or golden eyes.

Letting out a startled and unmanly yelp, Zip whirled around to look at the Doppelganger seated calmly at the table, spoon halfway to her mouth and filled with milk and soggy sugary cereal. The Doppelganger merely blinked at Zip's panic. Zip, in the meantime, hadn't taken his eyes off the Atlantean creation, and shoved one hand into the drawers, frantically digging for a weapon, preferably a sharp one that would do some damage.

Half a second later, Zip whipped his hand back out of the drawer, brandishing his chosen weapon at the Doppelganger, ready to duck at the first indication that the copy of Lara was going to draw a gun.

Instead, the golden-eyed being levelled a long and unimpressed gaze at Zip, silently challenging his manliness. And then the Doppelganger brought the spoon fully to her mouth and munched on the breakfast cereal.

Zip's jaw was on the verge of dropping, and when the fridge door moved to reveal Lara, the original, digging through the fridge, Zip's jaw did drop.

"Zip," Lara advised as she pulled out a small tub of yoghurt from the fridge and closed the fridge after her, "that spatula won't do much against her, you know."

Slowly, Zip's gaze travelled from Lara to the spatula to the Doppelganger and back to the spatula.

"What the _heck's_ going on?"

"Good morning." Winston poked his head into the kitchenette. "Lady Croft, I believe the builders wish to discuss the particulars of rebuilding Croft Manor with you…" he trailed off as he caught sight of the Doppelganger.

The Doppelganger did a good job of casually scooping up another spoonful of cereal and taking another bite out of her breakfast.

"Right now?" Lara asked sadly, casting a longing look at her yoghurt.

Winston, being the professional he was – plus, he had worked for Lara too long to even bother to question anomalies like why Alister's murderer was eating Zip's favourite brand of cereal and why Lara hadn't attacked the Doppelganger yet – shook off his surprise and answered the question. "Unfortunately, yes."

Lara sighed sadly, and passed her tub of yoghurt to the Doppelganger before leaving the caravan. At the door, she paused and doubled back.

"Oh, and Zip, I may need you to make some fake documentation for Doppelganger here. She can't hide forever."

Zip's mouth opened and closed like a goldfish, and the Doppelganger added, rather smugly, "And I'd close that mouth if I were you."

The red-headed 'Lara' stood up, returned the yoghurt to the fridge, and left the kitchenette with one last parting shot.

"You might catch a few flies."

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><p><em><span><strong>Author's Notes: Just one more chapter after this.<strong>_


	4. Ghosts of the Not So Distant Past

**Ghosts of the Not-So-Distant Past**

"In three words, I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on." – Robert Frost

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><p>ONE MONTH LATER<p>

"_See you in Avalon."_

Alister was either very wrong in his guess, or he was a liar who couldn't keep his promises.

Lara wasn't sure which one it was, and neither of the two options seemed very desirable right now. Usually, she would ask her Doppelganger as to which one was the more likely assessment, but the Doppelganger had disappeared some eight days ago, and had yet to return.

Zip had muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "Good riddance." while Winston kept his thoughts to himself and under a perfect poker face. Lara, funnily enough, found herself to be missing her not-so-evil twin, and sincerely hoped that the Doppelganger wasn't lying dead somewhere.

Lara shook her head, and threw the morbid thoughts out of her mind as she picked up another tome and started leafing through the thick book, searching for a distraction to her mind's current troubles. By some unlucky chance, Lara had picked up a book on Norse mythology.

_**Legend holds that only a true believer of Avalon can retain their spirit in the underworld after their death, regardless of the location of the believer's demise…**_

Scowling at the coincidence, Lara slammed the book shut and shoved it viciously back into the slot on the bookshelf of the newly built library. Obviously, Alister didn't believe enough, or the Norse Mythology book was full of tripe.

It was times like this that she wished that Alister, her 'geeky history buddy' was still alive, so the two could rant at length on the inaccuracies of history mythology books. Once again, her train of thought went back to the Doppelganger.

Lara sighed, and sat down on one of the plush couches in the library. She knew it wasn't the Doppelganger's fault, especially as she had been under orders at that point and did not have her own free will.

Still… Lara couldn't help but wish that things had happened differently. All of the 'what ifs' drifted through her mind, and the woman groaned, burying her face in a cushion.

Heck, she _really_ needed to talk to someone, be it the Doppelganger, or even a figment of her own imagination, as long as it was someone who could understand her. Lara closed her eyes and slouched on the couch, wishing more than ever now that the Doppelganger would come back-

There was a drawn out _creak_ of the door, and a small gust of wind ruffling her bangs told her that something very fast had just arrived and stopped sharply in front of her.

Lara cracked open an eyelid, and both eyes opened widely when she saw who it was.

"Where have you been?"

#TR:U#

FOUR DAYS AGO: SOMEWHERE IN AVALON  
>(WITH LOTS OF THRALLS)<p>

With another grunt, the Doppelganger drop kicked a hulking Yeti Thrall, grinning in satisfaction as the Thrall, quite literally, fell to pieces. Having finally felled the final Thrall in the chamber, the Doppelganger took to exploring the room, gently running a finger over the glowing blue carvings on the small, perfectly square blocks of stones lining the walls.

"Aaron…Abel…" the Doppelganger read aloud, "…Abelard…Ace…"

This continued until she reached the name she was searching for. The Doppelganger reached her fingers around the stone and tugged gently, until the square block fell loose from the wall and into her hands. A small smile of satisfaction stretched across her face when the rock hummed with a familiar life force, and the Doppelganger pocketed the stone.

It was time for her to go home.

A Thrall, one that had the misfortune of popping out of the Eitir and right into the speeding Doppelganger's path, was torn apart in a matter of milliseconds, and even as its dismembered head rolled away, it wondered why its _after_life was cut so short.

#TR:U#

THE PRESENT DAY: CROFT MANOR #2

Wordlessly, the Doppelganger dropped what appeared to be a brick into Lara's lap. Lara let out a small wince of pain as the brick-like stone fell mercilessly to gravity and against Lara's knees.

"What is this?" Lara picked up the brick carefully, turning it over in her hands. Her eyes widened upon recognising the writing on the brick as one from the depths of Avalon. "…_Alister_." She read aloud. Then, she glared at the Doppelganger. "Did you honestly spend _eight days_ just to get me a brick with his name written on it?"

The Doppelganger gave Lara an almost imperceptible eye roll, and picked up the brick before setting it down on the ground. Then, she looked meaningfully at Lara, and jerked her head at the brick.

"What do you expect me to do?"

This time, the Doppelganger's eyes looking upwards in a _Why-are-humans-so-stoopid_ fashion, and she picked the brick back off the ground and turned it upside down, almost shoving the runes in Lara's face.

"_**Hugr, **__**lifa***_…?" Lara stumbled over the runes, eyebrows furrowed. "What's that supposed to mean-"

The fearless tomb raider, who had faced down zombies, dinosaurs and mummy cats over her career so far, was not prepared for the brick to suddenly light up with the same blue glow associated with Eitir. Even as she shrieked in surprise, the Doppelganger put the brick down hastily, this time with 'Alister' facing up.

Lara watched, rapt, as blue mist floated up from the brick, and coalesced into an unmistakable figure.

"…goodness, Lara," the ghostly form of Alister rambled as he completely took form, "I thought you'd never figure it out- EEK!" The geeky man had broken off in a surprised squeal when he realised that he was face to face with the very person who had murdered him.

It was a common conception that ghosts floated. It was also another common conception that ghosts couldn't trip over.

Both were also common _mis_conceptions.

Alister stepped backwards sharply, and only succeeded in tripping over the very thing tying him to the plane of the living. Wordlessly, the Doppelganger helped him up, and Alister stared at her, his eyes nearly bugging out of his head.

"My gosh." Lara whispered. "Alister."

"Oh," Alister turned to the Lara seated on the couch, "hey, Lara."

"Alister!" Lara leapt up from the couch and wrapped her arms around the gangly man in a hug. "I missed you so much!"

Alister pushed his glasses up from where it had been slipping down his nose, and patted Lara awkwardly on the back, small wisps of blue mist dissipating from his hand every time the translucent hand made contact with the living. "There there, Lara. See? I'm fine." Alister looked over his own ghostly hand. "Well, mostly." He amended.

"How?" Lara pulled back from the hug, and held Alister at arm's length, looking over him. "How are you here?"

"Well," Alister rubbed the back of his head, "remember what I said about seeing you in Avalon? I never got around to telling you that you needed to find my life-stone, otherwise I'd be as good as dead." He craned his neck to look at the book jammed haphazardly in the shelf. "I believe it was in that book. Did you ever read that part?"

Lara let out a laugh at the sheer irony. Just a few more pages and she would have found out how to bring Alister – or at least, a ghost form of him – back.

"No, Alister," Lara admitted, shaking her head, "I didn't. But my Doppelganger did."

Alister looked nervously at the Doppelganger. "Uh, yes, about that… what is she doing here? Why isn't she attacking the two of us right now?"

The Doppelganger cracked her knuckles, but Lara could see the glint of humour in her eyes. Alister, however, did not.

"Not that I'm complaining." Alister added quickly, lest the Doppelganger decided that now was a good time to use her fists.

"It's a long story." Lara shook her head at her Doppelganger's antics.

"Hey, Lara!" Zip poked his head into the room. "I saw your red-headed twin some time ago – I think she's back to haunt…" Zip trailed off as soon as he saw the blue ghostly form of his dead friend.

"A-Alister?" Zip stammered. "How-? You're supposed to be dead."

"Well," Alister chuckled nervously at Zip's rapidly paling countenance, "guess what, Zip? There is life after death after all."

Zip's only answer was to pass out.

_Thump._

Alister winced, standing on the tips of his toes to look over Lara's head and anxiously down at Zip. "Is he- Is he going to be alright?"

Lara smiled. "There's carpet, see? He's going to be fine."

They all were.

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><p><em><strong>Hugr, lifa<strong>_ – supposedly translates to "spirit, live." Not sure if it's accurate, though – I got it off a Norse-Viking to English dictionary.  
>From the internet.<br>So it could probably mean anything.

Anyway, I do realise that this is a very sappy ending that probably doesn't match the TR franchise at all, but I figured that since 'Avalon' pretty much means 'hell', I don't think Alister would have told Lara that he'll see her in hell.  
>Seems kinda rude, if you ask me.<p>

Well, this is the end of **Where There Is Light**, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.


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